Last game: The Capitals had no answer for Ondrej Pavelec and the Atlanta Thrashers as they lost 3-1 Saturday at Verizon Center, their second regulation home loss of the season. Pavelec made 45 saves for Atlanta, who improved to 3-1-1 against the Caps this season after going 0-6-0 last season. In the only positive news, Alex Ovechkin scored to snap his nine-game goalless drought.

Possible lineup for Washington:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Knuble

Laich – Johansson – Semin

Chimera – Gordon- Fehr

Hendricks – Steckel – Bradley

Defense

Schultz – Green

Alzner – Carlson

Poti – Hannan

Goal

Varlamov

Neuvirth

Possible lineup for Toronto:

Forwards

Versteeg – Kessel – Armstrong

MacArthur – Grabovski – Kulemin

Sjostrom – Bozak – Brent

Orr – Kadri – Rosehill

Defense

Beauchemin – Komisarek

Kaberle – Schenn

Gunnarsson – Aulie

Goal

Giguere/Gustavsson

Outlook: The Capitals and Maple Leafs both enter Monday’s game on skids. The Caps will look to avoid their second three-game losing streak of the season, while Toronto has lost five of seven.

Tom Poti (groin) and John Erskine (undisclosed) took part in Sunday’s practice and feel ready to return to action. Head coach Bruce Boudreau said that there are players who are questionable for tomorrow, but would not elaborate. Both Poti and Erskine missed Saturday’s game against Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s season started with four straight victories, but since then, the Leafs have won only five of their following sixteen games. The Leafs have five players with 10 or more points, but rank 12th in the Eastern Conference with a -18 goal differential and 13th with 54 goals for.